The adventure begins during the years 1670 1700. Because the war and poverty are wreaking havoc upon his country The Dauphine, a region in what is now southeastern France a man decides to leave for more hospitable lands. He is called Chapein, Chappen, Chappenne or Francois, which at the time just seemed easier! Once he reaches Lorraine, which duke Leopold is rebuilding after the damage caused by the Thirty Years War, he marries Catherine and launches into the tobacco trade. Caught in an ambush organized by the duke s agents, he narrowly escapes flogging on the Two Towns square in Nancy. Barely a century later, in Marainville-sur-Madon, Marguerite, the wife of Chopin the wheelwright, gives birth to Nicolas, who during his adolescence decides to leave Lorraine, which is now French, for Poland. There, he becomes an accountant at the Tobacco Factory and a great resistance fighter against the Russians. He then becomes a private tutor and a French teacher. His son, Frederic, has a passion for the piano and for women! His mother Justyna, his sisters Emilia and Ludwika, then Moriolka, Konstancja, Maria, Marie d Argoult, countess Potocka, princesses, queens, artists, Catalina, Henriette Sonntag, his lovers, Teresa, George Sand; all love and take care of and accompany Frederic. They are his muses until his last breath is stolen by tuberculosis on a terrible day in October 1849, in place Vendome in Paris. And through it all, the lovers and the concerts and the travelling, Frederic never forgets his Poland, the rhythm of the mazurkas, the voices and floating petticoats of the Szafarnia dancers! All this is captured in this excellent story of this man's life. Here is the story of this amazing family and person who changed our view of music, and particularly, the piano."